A topic in research methodology
Naturalistic research seeks to enquire into things the way they are, as opposed to interventionist research which involves implementing changes: "…in general, the naturalistic researcher will not intervene in order to produce the phenomenon to be observed" (Kemmis, 1980: 111).
Whilst positivisitc approaches to research clearly have value in some types of enquiry, intervention changes that which is being studied, and this is more problematic with some research foci that others. Most research in social contexts (e.g. teaching and learning situations) invovles some degree of intervenion, but naturalisitic methods are intended to minimse this.
"Quantitative, experimental, and statistical methodology decontetualises psychological phenomena and separates them from the world…"
O'Doherty, Osbeck, Schraube & Yen, 2019
O'Doherty, K. C., Osbeck, L. M., Schraube, E. & Yen, J. (2019)
Case study is a methodology that is normally considered as naturalistic, as the intention is to observe a case as it normally exists in its normal context.
Naturalistic observation
"It is sometimes thought that naturalistic science is 'naturalistic' in the sense that the appearance of phenomena is 'left to nature'. Under such a view, it might be said that the observer merely waits for phenomena to present themselves to him – it is as if he could discover the real world outside by waiting for it to manifest itself. Observation is a far more interventive process than this…
the situation is analogous to that in astronomy: the processes of observation and interpretation are controlled (as for experimental research) but control is not exercised over the context of production of the phenomenon. The phrase 'context of production' is replaceable for naturalistic research by the generic phrase context of occurrence: the observer must be there in the situation to identify the phenomenon.
(Kemmis, 1980: 107, 109)
An intention to be naturalistic could be far form optimal in terms of how long it may take to collect to useful data.
An example is the developmental psychologist (or genetic epistemologist) Jean Piaget who studied the development of children's thinking form birth through adolescence. His original intention was to go into schools and and to wait for children to say something of interest, and then record it in his fieldnotes…but he soon decided that he needed to be more proactive (and so he developed clinical interviews).
All research tends to be an intervention at some level
As we know form quantum mechanics, the observer is inevitably not completely independent from what is being observed but is always part of a larger interacting system. Often in the natural sciences we can ignore this, but this is more problematic in the social sciences (such as educational research) where those being observed can reflect on this observation and how they wish to be perceived (see the observer effect).
"The interventions of naturalistic research go beyond the theory-and value-ladenness of observation, however …observation also entails such interventions as interviewing, recording and participation (which may amount to manipulation of conditions within the situation), let alone data analysis, interpretation, and selection of participants to observe or interview."
Kemmis, 1980: 109
Sources cited:
- Kemmis, S. (1980). The Imagination of the Case and the Invention of the Study. In H. Simons (Ed.), Towards a Science of the Singular: Essays about Case Study in Educational Research and Evaluation (pp. 96-142). Norwich: Centre for Applied Research in Education, University of East Anglia.
- O'Doherty, K. C., Osbeck, L. M., Schraube, E. & Yen, J. (2019), Introduction: psychological studies of science and technology, in Psychological Studies of Science and Technology (pp.1-28), Palgrave Macmillan.
My introduction to educational research:
Taber, K. S. (2013). Classroom-based Research and Evidence-based Practice: An introduction (2nd ed.). London: Sage.
